


The Rise of the Third-Slotter

by MothEmperor7



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Fantasy, Magic, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22478398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MothEmperor7/pseuds/MothEmperor7
Summary: David V. Goliath believes himself to be an ordinary guy with a stupid name. He has no way of knowing that his life is about to change. That he is anything but ordinary. He is the planet's newest three-slotter, beings of legend whose mere mention is enough to spark awe and wonder. Read on as he embarks on a journey to explore his powers, unaware of what he represents to the people around him. To some, he represents an opportunity, to some a threat and to many,  a new hope. Can he become the legend the people aspire him to be or will he be undone by the nefarious intentions of the threats he doesn't even know of?Release schedule is sporadic for now.This story is cross posted on https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/29628/the-rise-of-the-third-slotter.





	1. Chapter 1

Ordinary, that was the best way I could describe myself. Ordinary life, ordinary friends, ordinary middle-class parents, and ordinary social life. I had recently become old enough to vote but I haven’t got a girlfriend yet. Forget girlfriend, I didn’t even have a girl who I could call a friend.  
You see, my life was a common case when one is raised by conservative parents, in a developing country, with expectations put upon me by said conservative parents that I would lift them from said middle-class life to the upper echelons of society.  
The result was I am now a university student who doesn’t love what he is going to do for the rest of his life. For me, my future degree, my education, hell, my life was nothing but a useless conglomeration of lofty expectations, huge failures and even more expectations on top of it. My life was a weird combination of studies, video games, and masturbation. All in all, a strange cocktail of an average nerd in which I could only hope to drown in.  
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like life dealt a bad set of cards. I was an average looking guy with above-average intellect and a dry sense of humour. What I lacked for in brains or looks, I could make up for it in smarts. But to quote my favourite character from an anime, “It is too damn troublesome.” I had no inner will or desire to improve the quality of my life. The road map of my life had been laid out for me at a very early age. I could already see what was beyond the horizon for me in the future. More ordinary. Ordinary life, ordinary friends, ordinary middle-class family, ordinary social life. It wouldn’t be anything new.  
So all in all, if we were to define the crux of my problems, it would be this: I had nothing to look forward to. And if it played out the way it was supposed to, neither would you. After all, no one is interested in the story of an average Joe. We are all, after all, in one way or another, average Joes.  
But life has a funny way of kicking your perfectly laid out plans right in the balls without you having an inkling of what’s about to come. In a matter of moments, my life changed from ordinary to extraordinary. And it all started with dreams or rather sleeping. It all started in what was just another ordinary day in my ordinary life. Little did I know how everything was about to change. Sometimes I still wonder what would have happened if my life hadn’t taken a turn for the better. 

“ Man, not again!!!” Those were the first words out of my mouth as I woke up on an ordinary Friday morning, drenched in sweat. You see, today was a special day in my rather hectic life. Today was the last day of my end-semester exams. A day every student fantasises about. Even the most studious students in class look forward to this because it signifies an important milestone in everyone’s life. The long semester breaks.  
For me, the breaks were not filled with anything major to look forward to. The only great thing about the breaks was no work and all play. Video games, movies, and long showers at inappropriate times of the day where my left hand did most of the work was my day in a gist, with my mother coming to my room at random moments to make sure I was well-fed and hadn’t decided to transcend the mortal plane.  
Sad, I know but you can bet your bottom dollar I was looking forward to it.  
Monotony was my thing. I thrived in monotony. But lately, my monotonous life had hit a snag. A minor snag that has all the potential of derailing my life entirely. You see I was having trouble sleeping. Some sort of weird insomnia, my doctor told me. Random spells of sleeplessness which made following a routine impossible. And when I did sleep, I woke up feeling more exhausted than when I went to sleep. It was as if I had run a marathon when I supposed to be sleeping.  
Every day it was the same. Sporadic spells of sleeping followed by body ache the likes of which I had had only once before when I had tried going to a gym. The pain that had afflicted my body the next morning had made me quit almost immediately but I will never forget it. Now I was getting the same amounts of pain after doing the most relaxing job a man can do.  
This affliction had led to a rapid decrease in my productivity in my already low productivity days. My exams ensured that I would have to study hard, come hell or high water. And that meant I had no appetite for any activity after that. No video games, no movies and definitely no long showers.  
The amount of tension built up in my body due to the general lack of sleep, rest or lack of respite from the pains meant I was always on my boiling point. I was always irritated and this affected my already redundant social life. Friends didn’t interact with me and my family was barely tolerating me. This made the upcoming break even more crucial mind as I could really use it to set my life in order and do something about my sleep deprivation. A conservative family meant there was a definite stigma regarding sleep medication (“ It’s a crutch”, my father’s snide voice reminded me in my head)  
and I really needed to research alternative methods to just get some sleep.  
With all the problems affecting the monotonous humdrum that was my life, it was with a heavy heart and a sore body that I got up from the bed. The final exam was beckoning and I really didn’t want my mental and physical health affecting me adversely. I was out of my house in record time, doing the bare minimum to get ready. 

The hallways were filled with the buzzing most associated with the end of the exams. The academically-inclined students were discussing the paper, hell-bent on finding out their scores before they exited the premises while the others were already making plans for the break, intent on planning out their whole breaks right then and there.  
Me? I was busy feeling terrible. Halfway through the examination, my eyes got really droopy and I felt like I could fall asleep at any moment. While this would be welcome at literally any other time, the middle of the final test was not one of those. It was an effort to just stay awake through the exams, let alone completing it to my satisfaction.  
Now, after the exam was over, I was feeling as if someone had run me over with a truck and then thrown me off a cliff for good measure. If that wasn’t enough, I was feeling nauseous and felt as if I could hurl at any moment. I could say without a shred of doubt that this was the worst I had ever felt in my life. I just wanted to curl into a corner and sleep and cry and then sleep some more. The breaks hadn’t even started and things were already looking dreadful. It was in this haze of uncertainty and hopelessness that I started making my way home, ignoring all calls made my way, not feeling up to any interaction.  
I was walking to my home, unaware of where I was, having let my subconscious carry me when something stopped me in my tracks. “Dave!”, someone called out.  
Dave, short for David. David V. Goliath. That is my name. No, really, that is my name. My grandfather chose this surname when he immigrated to this country. My first name might just have been the result of the fact that my father hated me the moment I was born. Or his bad sense of humour. I have no idea what V stands for. I really think he wanted to name me David Versus Goliath but had to settle for V since someone must have straightened him out. The one thing that is not ordinary about me has made my life a tragedy, rather than enriching it. A socially inept boy with such a name ensures noogies and some introspection time in lockers and duffel bags. But I digress.  
Looking around I saw that I had ended up near the park overlooking the apartment I lived in. And the person calling me was my kind-of-best-friend/friend-I-had-known-for-the-longest-time, Frank. Frank Specter. Son of millionaire parents, straight-A student, ultra-popular and the most athletic person I knew. The kid was a freak. Why he chose to waste his time by hanging around with a loner like me, I don’t know.  
Frank, for the lack of a better word, was colourful. His hair was dyed blue, he wore the most colourful branded clothes and to top of it all off, he had tattoos covering his entire torso, from neck down to the waist. If anyone else had such a gaudy outfit, he would be laughed off the park. On Frank, the same outfit looked as if he had just walked through a rainbow and nature had given him the gift of looking spectacular. The man had a swagger no one else could pull off. His 6’2” lean frame was ripped with muscles. Chiseled like marble. Modern-day Adonis. That’s the word one girl used to describe him at a party I had the misfortune of attending alongside Frank. On a normal day, my chances of hooking up with a girl were 0. With Frank, that number dove into the negatives.  
“Hey, just finished my exams. I am not feeling well. Can we do this some other time?”.  
I really had no interest in engaging in a conversation with Frank. My entire being was screaming at me to just lie down somewhere.  
“Yeah, man. You are really looking pale. Still having trouble sleeping, huh?”, Frank enquired.  
“Yeah, it’s a bitch. But what can you do?”, I said, really wanting to end this conversation as soon as possible.  
“Mate, I may have something for your condition. You interested?”  
Now, I was intrigued. Was Frank peddling drugs? He didn’t strike me as the type, though who could say in today’s world.  
“Like drugs?” Curiosity and hesitance were evident in my voice.  
“No, man no drugs! Just a pill. It really helped me with my own sleeping problems.”, Frank stated vehemently.  
“You had sleeping problems? When? You didn’t tell me anything about it.”. I couldn’t keep the skepticism out of voice.  
“It was a long time ago. I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. You know how it is!”  
Even in my delirious state, I could tell Frank that wasn’t stating the whole truth. Something fishy was going on and I had no interest in becoming a part of it. I had too much going on already and this whole thing seemed troublesome.  
“Thanks, man but I think I will pass.”  
As I started walking towards my home, Frank just came up behind me and held my shoulders, stopping me in my tracks. I was startled for just a moment before I turned towards him, to ask him what his deal was.  
Before I could say anything, Frank just pushed a container into my hands with some force and just said, “Just take it if it becomes unbearable. Trust me on this.”  
Ironically every action of his caused me to trust him even less, my subconscious telling me to steer clear of whatever mess he was trying to drag me into. I lifted the container to look at it and saw it contained a single pill.  
I categorically replied, “Dude, I said I will pass. It’s not as bad as it looks. I will be okay after some food and rest. Maybe even a cold shower, if know what I mean.” I tried to inject some humour into the situation, trying to escape whatever this was and give him back his pill.  
Unfortunately, Frank wasn’t amused. He simply said with some force behind his voice, “Dave, just keep it in case of emergencies. On account of our long years of friendship. If you ever valued it.”  
There was something in his voice that just told me that I should just leave it at that and not prolong this confrontation. I quietly nodded at him and made my way back home.  
Once home, the conversation with Frank quickly went to the back of my mind as I got super sick. I quickly laid on the bed and just curled into a ball, my mind in a state of delirium as my body racked with pain and head felt like it would burst open. That’s how the next few hours went, with me rolled up into a ball of self-depreciation and pain and pity while the universe punished me for some unknown sin. The only respite was that my parents were out of town for some family function and I could escape the plethora of unwelcome questions borne out of concern for my state and suspicion about the reason of my said state.  
I was broken out of my pain-induced stupor when my phone beeped. Thinking it was a message from my parents, I checked to see what the message. Instead, it turned out to be a message from Frank.  
“Feeling well yet? If not, please take the pill. It really works wonders.” This was followed by some emojis whose meaning escaped my mind at that particular moment.  
The container was still in my pocket as I had been in no state to change my clothes or do any other activity for that matter. I took out the pill and just stared at it for a few seconds, before thinking, “What’s the worst it could do?” I was probably not thinking straight but popped it into my mouth anyway and waited for some reaction.  
Well, the pill did work wonders. Within seconds my head stopped hurting and I felt as if someone had given me the best massage and just loosened all the muscles of my body. I was euphoric. Forget being miserable, this was the best I had ever felt. Not only that, I was feeling sleepy. And I just knew this was unlike any sleepiness I had had for the last few days. No, this would be sleeping like it was meant to be, relaxing and rewarding. I just put my head on the pillows and within moments I was sleeping like a log.  
I woke up after what felt like seconds. But I knew that it had been a good sleep since I felt refreshed and unburdened by any soreness. I got up from the bed and went to the window to draw open the curtains. What I saw outside had me stumped for a moment. It was night outside. Was I asleep for a whole freaking day? Man, I knew I was sleepy and tired but this was a whole another level of sleep. This had to be some sort of personal record. But I just shrugged, thinking that while the day had been a waste, it was still the best sleep I ever had. Turning around to go and fix myself something to eat, I saw something that had my heart stopping for a few seconds. It seemed as if I had forgotten to breathe. This was stuff out of the horror movies I had seen on occasion.  
On the bed I had just vacated, where I was positive I went to sleep alone, was another person, sleeping as if he didn’t have any care in the world. But what had me positively terrified out of my skin was the identity of the person who was sleeping on my bed.  
The person sleeping on the bed was me. I was literally staring at myself sleeping on the bed. Words can’t describe the terror-inducing fear I felt. At that moment I prayed to God and the devil simultaneously, hoping that it was just a dream. I pinched myself as hard as I could but to no avail. I even gathered up the courage to pinch the version of myself sleeping on the bed. But the same results. This was not a dream. My brain went into overdrive, thinking about the various horrifying scenarios, all resulting in my death.  
It was in this situation, where I was contemplating various scenarios of my death and being replaced by my doppelganger, that the second heart-attack-inducing scare of the night happened.  
“How long are you going to stand there staring at yourself, you narcissistic perv?”  
That voice scared me out of my mind. I was positively sure that I had locked the doors before entering my apartment and no once could enter. I was close to passing out or soiling my pants or something when I looked up to see who it was.  
There, standing on the doorway, with an amused grin on his face, as if he held all the secrets of the universe in the palm of his hands, was my kind-of-best-friend/friend-I-had-known-for-the-longest-time, Frank Specter.


	2. Still Ordinary?

“Sometimes in life, there will be curveballs. And you got to hit them out of the park.” That was something my dad loved to say whenever I came to him with a problem. Well, Frank Specter standing in my doorway while there was a copy of me sleeping on the bed was a curveball that missed the bat altogether and hit me straight in the nuts.  
Let me describe the most ridiculous situation I had ever experienced in my life until then. My kind-of-best-friend/friend-I-had-known-for-the-longest-time, Frank (this is the last time I describe him this way, I promise) was standing at the door of my house. He had supposedly broken into my house without making a squeak and looking at me with a smug look on his face. To add to the ridiculousness of the situation, someone was sleeping on the bed I had just vacated. Let me rephrase that. Not just someone, a copy of myself I had no idea existed until then. Needless to say, I was flummoxed.  
“That pill really worked, huh?”. Those were first words out of my friend’s after what seemed like hours of us staring each other down. I was broken out of my reverie after he spoke those words. I was struck with the immediate temptation to punch the smug smile off his face. But one thing that I have learned in all my years of friendship with Frank was that you never take on Frank in a fight. Bad things happen if you do.  
My shock was now slowly morphing into rage and frustration, at the situation and most importantly, at Frank.  
“What the hell is happening here, man?” I couldn’t keep my incredulity out of tone as I demanded some sort of explanation for this ludicrous situation I had found myself in.  
“First of all, let me congratulate you on your untethering. Exciting times await you, my friend.” Frank announced, acting as if I had just won the lottery.  
Okay, now I was reaching my boiling point. I demanded an explanation and not some weird declaration of terms which I had no way of comprehending. I was seriously contemplating just punching the shit out of my friend, consequences be damned. But I restrained myself and enquired again with as much composure as I could muster.  
“Seriously, not helping. Explain it to me in terms I can understand. And what is this ‘untethering’ stuff?”   
“Why don’t you sit down first? It’s gonna be a while.” Frank calmly said.  
“Dude, you better explain some things quick. I am reaching the end of my patience here.” I wasn’t feeling his calm and composed attitude, acting if this was just another banter-filled conversation between friends.  
“Someone is sleeping on my bed who looks exactly like me. Last time I checked, I don’t have a twin brother and I went to bed alone. Now, my best friend is standing nonchalantly in my room as if he was supposed to be here all along when I pretty sure you broke into my house. And all this mess started with the god-knows-what pill you gave me on the account of our friendship. So, forgive me if I don’t sit down.” I was out of breath and out of fucks to give at this point and nothing he said would calm me down.  
“Okay then, have it your way, “he murmured, acting as if his usually laid-back friend hadn’t just gone on an angry tirade. “To begin with, just let me say that ‘this mess’ you keep referring to didn’t start with the pills I provided out of the kindness of my heart. You’re welcome, by the way. No, the beginning of all this mess was actually the mysterious illness that has ailed you over the last couple of weeks. It was no illness, my friend, it was actually your soul or spirit or whatever fancy you want to use to describe your true being trying to leave the plane that all mortals reside in. The pill just sped up the process, taking away days of excruciating pain which you could do without.”  
“I was going to die?” I asked, my brain freezing with the implications of what he had just said.  
“No, why would you think that?” he asked with a puzzled look on his face as if I was an idiot.  
“You just said my soul was about to leave the mortal plane. That’s literally the whacky spiritual way of saying that someone is dying.” I rambled vehemently, unable to comprehend the fact that my friend had just delivered the news of my impending doom with all the grace of a newspaper boy throwing a paper while cycling.  
Frank just casually waved my concerns off saying, “Nah, mate. I just meant that your soul was no longer able to sustain itself in the mortal plane. Never mentioned anything about dying.”  
“Thanks, mate, that cleared everything up. Coffee?” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my tone and Frank wasn’t best pleased with me interrupting his explanation.  
“Let me explain first. And don’t interrupt. In the world we live in, there are two planes, one of which ordinary mortals can’t perceive. Normally, mortals just live out their entire lives without ever becoming aware that another plane exists. But sometimes, some individuals are born special. You see, their true being, or core as we call it, differs from other beings. These cores being special means the sustenance provided by the mortal plane isn’t enough for these cores to survive. So, these souls just try to leave the mortal plane so that they can cross over to the plane we are currently in, simply known as ‘The Dimension’. This dimension contains energy called ‘miasma’, which is the energy required to sustain the core of an individual like us.”  
I couldn’t help but interrupt at this point. The more Frank spoke, the more confused I became and the questions kept racing around my brain.   
“Wait up, individuals like us? What does that mean?”, I enquired, wondering what was so special about me.  
“Individuals like us, or ‘Untethered’ as we like to call ourselves, have the special core I talked about. The need for miasma makes it impossible for our cores to actually live in the mortal plane for long and our cores leave the mortal body we were stuck in. Hence, the term ‘Untethered’. The time it requires an individual to untether is dependent on the individual himself, but it always happens if someone has a special core. That was the reason for your illness and pains actually. Now that the untethering process is complete your ailments have also passed.” Frank explained in an attempt to assuage my concerns.  
I dramatically raised my hands to address a few of the other concerns I was having.” Some questions, master. If I have untethered, what the fuck is a doppelganger of mine doing on my bed? Can the so-called ordinary mortals perceive us? And what in the name of heaven is so special about our cores that they can’t survive on ordinary mortal food. I rather like my pizza, if you don’t mind.”  
Frank had an amused grin on his face as he proceeded to answer my questions, “Good questions, my good padawan. First of all, as I said, only the core can enter The Dimension, not their mortal vessels. So, that would make that doppelganger lying on your bed, your mortal body.” He finished that with a short grin, almost as if he was looking forward to my reaction to that piece of news for a long time.  
“What!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I had a mental breakdown. I am not ashamed to admit that I had a little freak out in my head and was close to jumping out of the window, just to make sure I was really hearing this stuff and not making it up in my mind. Not one of my standout personal moments, I can assure you.  
Taking some time to compose myself, I just stated, disbelief shining through my words, “But that does mean I am dead, doesn’t it? And you said before that I didn’t!!”  
Frank took a moment to savour my reaction before replying, “Well, if you would have let me proceed, I would have answered that question even without being asked. Well, that was just your mortal vessel, your ‘tether’ if you will. Now that your core has passed over to the dimension, it will disintegrate in a few days, leaving behind no trace. Although, I would suggest you hide it. You walking around while a copy of yourself is lying on a bed is not something you want to explain to anyone.”  
Again, I couldn’t help myself. “But that would mean I am dead to everyone in the mortal plane. My parents, my friends and everyone else. How is that supposed to be helpful? You………..”  
Frank raised a hand to stop another tirade from me. “First of all, David, just let me ask ‘Friends, what friends’?”  
Ignoring his low blow, for the time being, I just impatiently asked him to proceed with his explanation.  
“People on The Dimension can interact with people on the mortal plane. For all intents and purposes as far as the mortal plane goes, this never happened. Just think of it as getting a new and a vastly improved body.”  
At those words, I couldn’t help but look down at myself. He was right. My physical appearance had improved. I could see the clear outline of my abs through my shirt and I had never worked out that hard. The sleeves of my shirt had stretched to their limit and looked like they could tear apart at any time if I flexed my muscles. I even seemed to have shot up a few inches. Out of perverse curiousity, I even tried to look under my pants. And to my amazement and, frankly, delight I could swear I had grown a few inches down there.  
Frank interrupted my self-examination though, wanting to continue with his explanation.   
“I know, right? Believe me, those are the least of the changes. But if I recall correctly, you had a few more questions, right? As I was saying The Dimension dwellers can interact with mortals, but only if they desire to. Any change in the Dimension isn’t reflected in the mortal plane. If it was, there would be a hell lot of unexplained stuff going on around the world, because let me you the Dimension is a chaotic place and its dwellers are a chaotic lot. You will know what I mean in the coming days, don’t worry.”  
Hearing his tone as he said the last sentence, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what he meant. The whole deal sounded too troublesome. But I still had unanswered questions I needed some conclusion to, so I let that go for now.  
“Okay, but what is ‘miasma’? And what is so special about us that our soul or cores or whatever couldn’t just stay in the mortal plane and had to go to the this ‘Dimension’ you speak of?”  
Frank seemed perturbed after I asked that question. Eventually, he did proceed to try and answer my questions.  
“Let me just say something. Even my knowledge on most of this stuff isn’t watertight. I am a small fry in a very big pond, not high enough in the food chain to know the answers to these questions. What I am to tell you is mostly a combination of whatever knowledge I have been able to gather through conversations and experiences and some slight conjecture on my part.”  
“Miasma is the mysterious energy that constitutes most of our universe. Anything and everything is made up of miasma. Even the mortal plane is made up of miasma. It may have various forms but it is still miasma. The fact that mortals can’t perceive the Dimension is due to miasma. Miasma can take various forms. Even the mortal plane is somewhat aware of the existence of miasma. It has given it various names like dark energy, dark matter and a myriad of other theories regarding its nature. That’s all miasma. But most importantly for us, the untethered, miasma enhances us. Makes us stronger, faster, better, mentally sharper. But most importantly, miasma gives us the ability to manipulate, absorb and control miasma itself. And that’s the answer to your question about what makes us special. We, the untethered have the ability to interact with miasma. Manipulate it, absorb it and give it shape. Some can even bend it to their will according to their desire.”  
Information overload…… Information overload…… Information overload……  
Those were the words appearing in my brain as it tried to fathom the scope the information Frank had so casually dumped on me. A mysterious energy, manipulation, bending….. all of this sounded like it had come from the realms of fiction. Comic books, movies, games…. that’s where this stuff belonged. And it should certainly not involve me. Me, a loner with stupid desires and a stupid name to go with it.  
While I was having my own inner monologue ranting and raving about my misfortune, Frank had crossed the room. He just put his arms on my shoulders and asked, “Hey man, you ok? I know it can be a lot to take.”  
Any other situation and his action would have me jump out of my skin with fright. It was a true testament to the effect the various events had had on me that I didn’t show the barest of reactions. Even in the midst of all these overwhelming and confusing revelations, a question kept bothering me.  
“Yeah man, I am cool. You should manipulate miasma, absorb it and stuff and something about abilities. You mean like superpowers or something?” I enquired. I will admit that the possibility of having superpowers did sort of excite me.  
“Hmm… how to answer this? Superpowers? You can say that. Every individual almost always has unique ways they can manipulate miasma. Some can control fire and some can fly. I would rather not go into the depths of this explanation right now! You are still far off from having any way to uniquely miasma yourself, Dave!” He said, correctly guessing that I was looking forward to having superpowers.  
“You should get a change of clothes. We are going out. There are some people I want you to meet.” He said while sitting down, motioning me towards my closet.  
“What people?” I couldn’t help asking. Meeting strange people or friends of my friends was not exactly my forte and no amount of miasma or any other weird stuff would change that.  
Frank was quick to reply, “Other untethered. It will be easier for you to understand some of this stuff coming from various other sources. I am not too high on the ‘lore’ and ‘science’ of the Dimension if you will.”  
Nodding to myself, I almost turned around to do as he asked. But another question popped into my head at that exact moment.  
“Hey Frank, can you?”, I asked.  
“Can I what?”, he asked back, puzzled.  
“Can you manipulate miasma? Or some of the other stuff you were talking about? Interaction or something, I don’t remember.”  
Frank was quiet for a moment before replying, “Can I manipulate miasma? You tell me!” As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his hand. In the palm of his hands was a fire coloured the most vivid pink I had ever seen. And for what seemed like the millionth time that day, my brain shut down.


	3. The Dimension

The day had been particularly eventful, the most eventful day of my life actually, full of shocks and surprises, enough to wrench the hearts of famous movie directors and authors and make them proud. You would think that such an eventful would make me quite numb to any further surprises the day might throw my way. You, sir or madam, would be very wrong.  
Nothing could prepare me for the sight of pink flames (were they even flames?), literally in the palm of my best friend. The smug look on his face was back. He must be feeling like Prometheus, bringing fire to a lowly human like me. I was gobsmacked and it showed. On my face, through my words, through my actions. You name it.  
“WHATTTTT………..IS THAT????”, I asked, flailing my arms about as if it was me holding those flames and not my friend.  
“What? I thought you wanted to know if I could interact with miasma?”. Frank couldn’t help but keep the smug arrogance in his voice.  
He continued, “You really should get ready though! I am really giving no more explanations alone. Get ready fast to get your answers as soon as possible.“  
That was all the encouragement I needed. I got ready faster than I have before, although my clothes didn’t really fit me anymore. And my distress regarding that fact was evident on my face it seems as Frank said, “Don’t worry, you won’t really need to buy clothes much longer. Some experience and miasma manipulation will take care of that for you. Just imagine what you want to wear and perfect form-fitting clothes will wrap themselves around your body.”  
Just to emphasize his words, he literally changed his clothes from shirt and jeans to a hoodie and loose pants in the blink of an eye. I like to think that he was just showing off.  
I just stared at him for a moment before nodding to myself, trying to keep myself from succumbing to another mental breakdown.  
“Cool, let’s go.”  
I started to move towards the door of my room when Frank stopped me.  
“Hey man, we are taking the shortcut!” He said before moving towards the window of my room.  
“What do you ………”, before I could get my words out, Frank had just nonchalantly jumped out of the window. To put things into perspective, I live on the 21st floor of a high-rise building. I just stared at the window for a moment before rushing towards it, fully expecting to see the mutilated carcass of my friend. Instead what I saw had my jaws dropping yet again. Frank was on the terrace of the nearest high-rise building, casually waving at me, beckoning me to come. Again, to put things into he had horizontally scaled about 20 buildings in a single jump.  
I was wondering what to do when I heard Frank shouting at me. (Voice amplification must be one of the perks of this whole deal because man, he was loud.)  
“Hey Dave, just jump. Towards this building. Using all the force you can gather in your legs. I will catch you if it looks like you will jump past this building. It’s better to jump with your eyes closed on the first try though. It's better for your nerves.”  
This scene was oddly reminiscent of a scene in The Matrix. And at the back of my mind, all I could think was, “If the chosen one couldn’t make the leap on the first try, how am I supposed to do this?”  
After a few minutes of contemplation, (it could have been hours. At this point who knows) I just stood on the window sill and decided to take metaphorical “leap of faith”. I closed my eyes and with all the power I could muster in my legs, I jumped. After that, I couldn’t help it. I had to open my eyes. Because if it was falling to my death, I had to see the concrete of the pavement below me. But against everything that physics had taught me, I found myself literally flying. That is until I reached the apex of my jump. Because after that it was a rapid decline. I had almost made it to the building when I realised that I would crash face-first into the building. So, I would die anyway. Just before the inevitable face plant of death happened, I felt someone catch me around the waist. Looking up, I saw that it was Frank. He carried me bridal style to the roof of the building. If I kissed him right there and then, it would be the perfect scene out of a superhero movie. Frank being the superhero, me being the damsel-in-distress. I FELT FUCKING EMBARRASSED!!!  
I hastened to climb off his arms and tried to gather whatever degree of self-respect I had left.  
“Nice attempt for it being you first try, dude. I knocked myself out on my first one.” Frank said, trying to alleviate some of my embarrassment.  
“Yeah, whatever. Where to next?” I asked, desperate to change the topic.  
“Don’t worry. Two more jumps will do it. We have to reach the rooftop of that building.” He stated, pointing towards one of the taller buildings in town.  
I am proud to say I did better on the next two jumps. Much better. Couldn’t stick the landing though, although I didn’t get any scrapes and bruises, much to my amazement. Frank’s advice: “Roll.” Wise words to keep in mind. Midway through the final jump, I saw that there a group of people waiting for us. Four of them, in fact. Only when I had landed did I get a good look at them.  
Two guys and two girls. As soon as we landed on the rooftop, all four of them greeted Frank as if they were lifelong friends. Which on second thought, they probably were. All looked unique. All of them would stand out in a crowd individually. I briefly wondered if being remarkable looking was one of the criteria for a being with a special core. Then I remembered my own unremarkable features and decided it would be best for my ego if I didn’t dwell on it.  
Frank took the time I was sizing them up to greet each of them individually, before proceeding to introduce me to them.  
“Hey guys, this is David. He is one of us now, a new untethered. We have to help him to acclimatise to this new world.” Then he left it to the others to introduce themselves to me.  
Rather than introducing themselves to me though, they proceeded to size me up and then proceeded to give me a curt nod or downright ignored me.  
The scene would have been cool in a mobster movie, no doubt, but this stuff happening to me only served to annoy me. The day had been a humdrum of activity and reveals and I wasn’t handling my emotions very well. So I did what any petulant child would do. I gave them the cold shoulder as well.  
That only served to earn a scoff from one of the girls and an awkward chuckle from Frank. He acted quickly to get rid of the tension in the air.  
“Hey guys, play nice. Why don’t you guys introduce yourself to David here so that he feels at ease? After all, you’re going to see much more of each other.” Frank said, trying to gain control of the situation at hand. Gotta say it was weird seeing him act as a leader.  
The other guys just looked at each other, probably silently urging someone to go first. Finally, after what seemed like a mental battle amongst the four of them, they apparently reached a decision.  
One of the guys moved towards me and introduced himself in a gruff manner as if it was the last thing he wanted to do. “Name’s Samuel. Never call me Sam or Sammy or anything else. Just Samuel. Haven’t unlocked my ability yet.”  
Samuel was big. And buff. It was slightly intimidating; I have got to admit. Couple that with this voice and his bald head and you have got a super villain’s henchman vibe rolling off of him.  
The next guy was up next. He could not be more different from Samuel if he tried to. Black, curly hair, average looks and the way he carried himself; dude had the guy-next-door nailed on. If the guy living next door to you had sparks of electricity shooting off of him continuously.  
“ Hi, my name is Thomas Turner. But call me Tom. Everyone does. Nice to meet you.”  
Hmm, the guy was friendly enough I guess. I would have offered to shake his hand if I wasn’t afraid of electrocuting myself that is.  
Before I could contemplate further, one of the girls just got in my face and proceeded to introduce herself. Hello, personal space, please!!!!!!  
“Hey, nice to meet you. My name is Lucy Thompson. I can create copies of myself. Friends?” She extended a hand towards me, wanting me to shake it to signify the beginning of our friendship or something. I wouldn’t know. Enthusiastic and friendly wasn’t my type of crowd.  
“Copies?” I asked, all the while shaking her hand, which she was refusing to let go of.  
In response to that, she blew out a bubble from her mouth away from us. Instead of bursting though, the bubble convoluted itself to form a copy of Lucy. Even after all the surprises that had been served on my plate, I couldn’t help being slack-jawed. This stuff would definitely take some getting used to.  
Finally, the final member of the ragtag group introduced herself. The only thing I was able to gather was that her name was Emma Turner and that she was ‘slotless’. Whatever that meant. She was beautiful. Like the most beautiful girl, I had ever seen. She was mesmerising, divine……. I am out of words to describe her.  
While I was busy staring at her, Lucy had moved towards Frank. Before I knew what was happening, she had stuck her tongue down Frank’s throat. I stared gobsmacked as they kept trying to exchange their lunch. Frankly, it became disgusting after a while. I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only that thought that way as the others were also looking at the couple with varying degrees of revulsion. I had to interrupt this make-out session as I couldn’t watch it any longer.  
“So….. girlfriend?” I asked Frank in a deadpan. That caused him to finally come out of Lucy’s throat for air. He shot an awkward grin towards my way before saying, “Yeah, sorry about that guys. Anyways, let’s go downstairs guys. Gotta introduce you to Frost!”  
“Frost?” I asked, “Who is that?”  
It was Lucy who replied in her exuberant tone, “Our mentor! He is like the leader of untethered in this city. He knows more about the Dimension and miasma than anyone else I know.”  
Everyone else voiced their agreement and everyone proceeded to leap off the building. I followed them, albeit hesitantly. Jumping off a building was still nerve-wracking. We landed in an isolated alley, filled with garbage boxes and broken cars. Across us was a club, named “The Dimension”.  
I couldn’t help but voice my opinion. “Really??”  
Frank just replied with a slight laugh. “I know, right? Frost has a weird sense of humour; you will find out.”  
I quickly followed everyone into the club. The club was unlike any other I had ever been to. Not that I had been to many. But I had been in enough to know clubs don’t have notice boards. Nor do they have people just sitting in groups chatting among themselves, rather than socialising. In fact, the only thing usual about the club was that it had a bar. And even that was devoid of a bartender.  
Everyone just went their separate ways, leaving me and Frank alone. Before I could say anything, Frank just said, “Looks like Frost is not here. You look around while I try to find out where he is.” Then he left me on my own and followed after Lucy. It was probably a good guess that it wasn’t Frost he wanted to spend the time with. Left to my own devices, I just looked around, trying to get a measure of the place. The whole scene at the club reminded me of a guild hall from video games and comics, rather a club. Having nothing to do, I just went and sat down on an unoccupied stool at the bar. Being surrounded by so many strangers was making me really uncomfortable.  
Before I could wallow in my discomfort any longer, someone interrupted me. “You look new around here.” The new voice startled me so much that I nearly fell out of my stool. Looking up, I saw that it was a middle-aged man speaking. It seemed like the bar finally had its bartender.  
“You want something?”, he continued, either not noticing or choosing to ignore my brief moment of alarm.  
“Just juice.” Nodding once, he went about fixing my juice. While he was setting up my drink, I took my time studying me. He was thin but not frail, having a way about him that suggested that it would be a mistake to underestimate him. He carried himself with grace and something about him just screamed: “wise beyond his years”. If I were to guess, he would be somewhere around 35 years. However, his most remarkable features were his eyes and hair. Both were a pale shade of white, like a sheet of snow on a particularly cold morning. I found myself fascinated by this individual.  
“So, new around here, huh?” He asked me while passing me my drink. I was surprised to find that the drink was chilled, even though I hadn’t seen him using any ice.  
“Yeah, new to this whole ‘untethered’ business really. Just discovered today that I am supposed to be special.” I replied, my feelings regarding today’s events seeping into my tone. I was none too pleased with the information Frank had provided me with, or rather the lack thereof.  
The bartender just stared at me for a moment before saying with a slight smile, “Special? That would be an exaggeration, young one. Look at it as you being not ordinary.”  
I was irritated by his use of the term ‘young one’ but I let it go in favour of letting the conversation flow along. This could be an avenue of information that I would be stupid not to make use of simply because of a little irritation.  
“So, what brings you here?” He enquired.  
“Actually, my friend, Frank brought me here. To meet a guy called Frost. Some sort of leader of this city. Supposedly, he knows more than most about this whole ‘Dimension’. You must know where he is, right, seeing as you work in his bar.”  
The bartender looked amused as he replied, “I don’t know where Frost is at the moment. But I can help answer your questions if you like. I have been around as long as Frost.”  
I shot him a contemplative look before deciding to sate my curiosity on some of the matters I found myself wondering about. The guy seemed knowledgeable and genuinely willing to answer my questions.  
“Frank said everyone can manipulate miasma. But a guy I met before, Samuel, said he didn’t have any ability while another girl, Emma, said she was ‘slotless’. Frank said everyone has a unique manner of manipulating miasma. So, how can Samuel have no ability? And what is this ‘slotless’ business?”  
The bartender thought about it for a moment before replying, “Frank was right in saying everyone can manipulate miasma. That’s the basis of it, true. Increased strength, speed, agility, dexterity, and other enhancements are just a function of your core unconsciously manipulating miasma. But when Frank said everyone had a unique ability, he meant everyone should have a unique ability. But not everyone does. Right now, even you don’t.”  
I thought about it for a moment before following up with another question, “Okay, how do I unlock my ability? And what is ‘slotless’? You still didn’t answer that!”  
The bartender took my glass which I had emptied proceeded to refill it. After handing it over, he replied, “Okay, you have to understand something first. If you heard me correctly, I said everyone ‘should’ have an ability. That’s the general functionality of our cores. But that’s not always true. Just like everything else in our lives, be it for a mortal person or an untethered, our abilities and our gaining access to them is more often than not, governed by our personalities and experiences. Actions and consequences, you see. The very first thing you need to know each person has a number of ‘slots’. Some people can’t even find out how many slots they have. This can be due to several factors; general lack of experiences big enough to make you grow. An epiphany, if you will. I prefer the self-discovery. It can be anything; a huge success or a failure, a near-death experience or the death of a loved one. Sometimes, when a person falls so deeply in love that there’s no going back, even that can be a catalyst to unlock your powers.”  
I just sat there for a moment taking all that in. Whatever this bartender had said had got me thinking. My life was ordinary to the extreme. Where would a guy like me gain the experiences to unlock my abilities? My life was a case study in mediocrity. Before I could spiral down further in my journey of self-depreciation, the bartender interrupted me. It seemed as if he wanted to continue with his explanation.  
“As I was saying, each person has a number of slots. Slots are an indicator of how many abilities a person can have. Think of your core as a vessel. The larger your vessel, the more abilities it can hold. But keep in mind, no person can have more than three slots. You can, of course, expand your arsenal by mastering your abilities and experimenting with them, thus creating new ones from your existing ones but no one can have more than three base abilities. Although having three slots is exceedingly rare. Most have only one slot. Very few have two. Almost no one has three slots. Let me put it this way. I have never met anyone with three slots. And I know a lot of people.”  
I nodded to myself as I thought about what he said. It made a lot of sense if you thought about it. But some things were still not clear to me.  
“How do I know how many slots I have?”, I asked, genuinely curious to know this. I hadn’t seen any physical indicator on Frank or the bartender, now that I looked at him carefully.  
In response, the bartender just lifted his sleeve to shoulder height. There on his upper arm was a tattoo of a snowflake. But unlike an ordinary snowflake, this snowflake wasn’t all white. It was half white and half black.  
The bartender then quickly pulled his sleeve back over the tattoo before saying, “That was my indicator for the number of slots I have. As you may have noticed, the tattoo was of two colours, indicating that I could have two powers. Don’t ever ask people to show you their tattoos though. People generally like to keep it private. Everyone has a different representation depending on their personality and preferences. I have always loved snow, hence a snowflake. Even my abilities are snow based. Don’t confuse the facts though. Just because my tattoo shows I have two slots doesn’t mean I have two unique abilities. Unlocking each base ability requires life-changing experiences.”  
I couldn’t help interrupting him at this point, “So you have unlocked only one ability?”  
The bartender shot me a wry grin at this and replied, “I never said that did I? Anyways, even getting this tattoo to show the number of your slots is a humongous task for some. Many never unlock this indicator and thus can never unlock their ability. And that is the difference between those who are ‘slotless’ and those who haven’t unlocked their abilities yet. Those who haven’t unlocked their abilities yet have unlocked their tattoos, thus showing them the number of abilities, they could potentially have. Meanwhile, the ‘slotless’ haven’t even unlocked their tattoos yet.”  
I mulled over what he said before asking how I could unlock my own tattoo. But before I could get my question out of my mouth, someone placed their hands on my shoulder in a display of familiarity. Irritated, I turned around to see that it was Frank, who had abandoned me in this strange place, by the way, looking at me with a smile.  
Before I could my frustration towards him, he said, “Looks like you already met Frost”, nodding towards the bartender. Shocked beyond measure, I turned around to look at the bartender (Frost, my mind supplied) and saw him looking at me with a grin on his face that would have fitted perfectly on the Cheshire cat.


	4. Monsters are real!

“Wait, you’re Frost?!”, I couldn’t help but ask the bartender. Although, now that I thought about it, there were clues regarding his identity all along. The snowflake tattoo, the snow-based powers, and his general appearance. Even the extensive knowledge he had about the various fundamentals of the untethered should have been a clue. It left me feeling a bit stupid after finding out his identity.  
It was Frank who answered my question though. “He didn’t tell you that he was Frost? Typical!” All of this was said with a fond grin as if he had come to expect this behaviour from him.   
The Cheshire grin was still present on Frost’s face as he replied, “I’ve got to admit that it was a nice change of pace. Everyone always treats me with such respect that it becomes boring to talk to everyone. ‘Mr. Frost!’,‘Frost sir’. No matter how much I tell everybody to just call me Frost! It was nice to speak to someone who didn’t care about my identity and just asked whatever was on his mind.”  
I was still trying to get over the fact that this unassuming man was the venerable leader of the Untethered in this city.   
Ignoring my momentary dumbfounded state, Frank and Frost proceeded to have a conversation of their own.  
“So, Frank, how did you come across this one?”, Frost asked.  
“David here is my childhood friend, actually. He didn’t even give any indication that he was a potential Untethered though. The illness afflicting us before our untethering affected him before I could prepare him for it. It was already a few weeks of him being ill before I could give him the pill.”   
Frost gained a look of understanding on his face as he said, “Ah! So, this was who you asked the pill for. I was worried when you came for the pill in such a hurry.”  
Frank said, “Yeah, the transition was really taking a toll on him. I only got the opportunity to give him the pill today. After the transition, I explained a few things to him before I brought him here. I figured he would be better served asking his questions here as I didn’t want to confuse him or provide him with wrong information.”  
I found this a good time to jump into the conversation. “Hey, speaking of you breaking into my house this evening and scaring the life out of me, I am curious about the pink fire you showed me at my house. You a fire magician or something?”  
Frank just gave an amused snort before replying, “No, nothing so common for me. My ability is emotion manipulation and control. Basically, I can absorb emotions from people in my surroundings and convert it into energy. That pink fire, as you so eloquently put it, was your own anxiety that I converted into heat energy, which you perceived as fire.”  
I was still puzzled about the colour though. “Why was it pink though? Shouldn’t energy still manifest as normal coloured fire?”  
Frank was quick to reply to clear up my misunderstanding. “The energy takes on the colour of the emotion I absorb. Anxiety is pink; hence the fire was pink. And before you ask, no, envy is not green!”  
I had always been fascinated with emotions given colours in phrases. To think Frank had a power like that was fascinating and frankly, very exciting for me personally. I was sure my glee could be seen on my face as both the guys had grins on their faces.  
I was eager to know more about my friend’s abilities though. “Hey, how many slots do you have? And can I see your tattoo?”  
Frank looked guarded for a minute before looking at Frost and back to me. He stared at me for a few seconds before finally coming to a decision. Looking up at me, he said, “First of all, mate, don’t ask anyone about their tattoo. Slots are considered okay. But tattoos are considered a huge violation of privacy, as they represent the innermost self of an individual. Also, never show anyone your tattoo unless you absolutely trust them. A person can find out a lot about you just by looking at your tattoo. Your powers, your motivations, sometimes even your weaknesses.”  
I solemnly nodded at him before he continued, “But you are my close friend and I trust you; I am gonna show you my tattoo. Just don’t tell anyone, alright?”  
I nodded eagerly at him before he gained a fond look on his face. Looking around to make sure no one was looking in my direction, he quickly rolled up his jeans. There, on his right calf, was a tattoo of a two-coloured heart. One half was coloured the standard red, while the other half was aqua blue. He had it exposed for only a few moments before quickly rolling down his jeans.  
He said with a hint of pride in his voice, “I am two-slotted. Although, I have unlocked only one of my powers. Other than me, I know only Frost here who has two slots.”  
Frost interrupted our conversation by saying, “Careful there Frank, lest you get a big head.” Although he said it with a hint of amusement in his voice, hinting at the fact that he wasn’t serious. From what I had seen of their interaction, Frost seemed genuinely fond of Frank. And the feeling was duly reciprocated. Frank wasn’t kidding when he said that Frost was his mentor. Frost certainly was treating Frank as if he was his protégé.  
Frost broke me out of my reverie by saying, “Let’s go, guys. Let David have his first experience of a patrol and learn about some of the unpleasant elements of ‘Dimension’.”  
Frank just looked at him with a sceptical look on his face and said, “Are you sure about this, Frost? I mean, he just became an untethered today! Wouldn’t it to be soon for him to go out like this, without any training or combat experience?”  
Frost still had a cool air about him, as if me having no combat experience or abilities was a triviality. He continued going about his task and putting away everything before saying, “Frank, trust me on this. Today is a good day for his first day of patrol. He wouldn’t even have to do anything! He could just watch us in action for now. We will just let him take on the weakest of whatever we find out there. Do you really want him to skip today? Think what day it is today!”  
Frank looked puzzled for a moment before a look on realisation passed over his face. He grinned before looking at me and saying, “Man, I can’t wait to see your reaction!”  
I was quite irritated to be left out of the loop and before I could tell them where they could stuff it, they just made out of the building and motioned me to follow them. I quickly made my way out of the door and saw that they were there waiting for me. After making eye contact with me, Frank just quirked his eyebrows upward before looking towards the sky. Following his line of sight, I saw something that was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.  
It's strange how a person never really looks at the sky unless they are actually looking at it, admiring the stars or the moon. At least, I don’t. I could never tell you if any night was a full moon or half-moon or no moon at all, without looking at the sky, that is. But even in my obliviousness regarding the night sky, I was positively sure that there weren’t supposed to be two moons in the sky. And there certainly shouldn’t be a red moon in the sky. And when I say red, I mean blood-red. It was beautiful, two moons within inches of each other but as different as they could be. At the same time, it was positively spooky. The scene invoked emotions in me that I didn’t recognise, that I wasn’t sure I was capable of. My emotions must have shown on my face as I could snickering coming from Frank’s direction. Looking down, I saw that even Frost was trying hard to keep from snickering himself. Frank, meanwhile, looked on the cusp of breaking down in full-blown laughter. But I was surprised to find out that, at that moment, I didn’t really care. I found myself looking up once more, morbidly curious to see if the red moon was still there. It was.  
Frank interrupted my train of thoughts by saying, “Don’t worry. The moon isn’t always red!”  
I quickly retorted, “Why are you acting as if the moon being red is the only problem here? It’s not even ‘the’ moon. It’s just a moon. One of two moons.”  
Frank just proceeded to wave off my indignance, “Meh! You get used to it. Just accept it as one of the quirks of the dimension, if you will.”  
That reply didn’t serve to alleviate my concerns even a single bit. But I realised I wouldn’t make much headway in this direction. So, I turned towards Frost and asked him, “Why is one of the moons red anyways?”  
Frost replied with an air of nonchalance that was positively maddening. In fact, both of their cavalier attitudes regarding this matter made me want to tear my hair out. “Don’t worry, it’s only for today. And while there are two moons for the whole dimension on this planet, the red moon only appears in certain places. If the concentration of miasma is very high in a certain location of the world, the second moon, Luna, appears to be red to the people in that geographical location. It is us today, it could be literally anywhere else tomorrow. There are some ways to predict the concentration of miasma over a certain location in the future, but none of them are truly scientific or without its flaws.”  
“How do you predict the concentration though?”, I enquired.  
“That’s one of the things we’re going to show you tonight. Don’t worry, tonight will be a good experience for you.” Frost replied before leading us out of the alleyway into the main street.  
We walked for a few minutes silently before I remembered something that had been bothering me. I turned to Frank and asked, “Hey, you guys keep talking about some kind of patrol. What is up with that?”  
Frank and Frost just looked at each other before ignoring me altogether. I was flabbergasted at them but kept walking in order to keep up with them. I don’t know, a sinister-looking red moon hanging over your head leaves you reluctant to be out alone. We entered an alleyway and there I saw something that froze the blood in my veins. There was a creature there that I had I could only describe as a bull. With a few major differences. This bull had an only red eye with no pupil. And it was larger than any bull I had ever seen.   
Frank then turned towards me and said in a grim tone, “And that, my friend, is why we need the patrol.”  
I turned towards him with horror and confusion raging through my mind, desperate for some answers. But before I could get a word out, the bull let out a blood-curling and charged us, specifically towards me.  
I feel like there is no someone shame in admitting that I froze. Couldn’t move a muscle. The sudden onslaught by a creature whose appearance itself had shocked me into inaction was sure to lead to my demise. But in fear-induced paralysis, I couldn’t even close my eyes and was thus destined to see the monster strike the killing blow with my own eyes.  
Or that is what would have happened had it suddenly not frozen over. It was literally encapsulated in a block of ice. One moment it was charging towards me, the next moment it was as frozen as me with no escape. Looking around in a haze, I saw Frost walking towards the bull with slow, measured steps, as if a bull hadn’t been about to end my life. That was when I realised who had frozen the bull just before it hit me. Frost made it to the bull and just pushed it. It fell and literally shattered and then dissipated into red smoke, leaving no trace behind of a monstrous bull or the ice that had encased it. I had great trouble in coming to terms with the fact that a creature out of the scariest horror stories out there had met its demise in such a tame manner.  
“What the fuck was that?” That was all I had the sense to muster in the form of a question.   
Frank replied, his tone a mixture of amusement and understanding, “ That was a miasma-monster. Or at least a type of it. That miasma-monster is called a cyclops, the name derived from the Greek legends, of course. It was a specific type of cyclops too, a ‘Taurus’. One of the weaker ones out there, to be honest.”  
“That was one of the weaker ones? You are fucking kidding me, right?”, I shouted in disbelief. That thing, which Frost had just called ‘one of the weaker ones’, had just scared me out of my pants. The nonchalance the two men in my company were displaying regarding the matter beggared belief.  
Frank was the one who replied, speaking as if he was talking to a one-year-old who had just thrown a tantrum. “Yes, that was one of the weaker ones. But there’s a caveat here. The red Luna.”  
“What do you mean?”, I asked.  
It was Frost who took over the explanation. “Remember, what I said just a few minutes ago. Red Luna signifies that there’s a high concentration of miasma in our region. Those monsters are made of miasma. They feed on miasma. Thus, it follows naturally that whenever there is a high concentration of miasma somewhere, the monsters in that region become stronger, larger, faster. And also, more in number, as the higher concentration of miasma attracts the monsters to itself like bees to honey ”  
“What? Then why didn’t we bring more people with us? I mean, essentially, you are just two against many. I am pretty much useless and a burden in this situation!” The cavalier attitude of both of these guys was throwing me off a little bit, I’ve got to admit.  
“That’s because you are forgetting something. Remember what I said! Our cores, too, rely on miasma to sustain itself. Higher concentrations of miasma enhance us too. Think performance-enhancing drugs, but for our abilities!”  
I quickly realised what they meant to say. “So, you’re telling me that you guys get stronger too, thus balancing out the upgrade in strength the miasma monsters get.”  
Frost smiled in approval, knowing that I had figured it out. “Yes, but it gets better, you see. Miasma-monsters, like any creature in the mortal world, is a creature of instinct. Their manipulation of miasma is totally instinctual. But, we, the untethered, can actively control how much miasma we are using, the form it takes and even how long we are using our abilities. That gives us a major advantage. The more experience you have in manipulating miasma, the more advantage you get from an increase in the miasma in your surroundings!”  
That made a lot of sense. This was the perfect time for a novice like me to see the dangers of the world I had just stepped into. I would have two experienced masters of the craft guiding and protecting me, in a situation where they were the strongest they could be. And considering the high concentration of miasma, I wouldn’t become an outright liability.  
While all that made perfect sense to me, I still had questions behind the reason for all of this.  
“But why do we require the patrol anyways? I mean, why don’t people just, I don’t know, destroy or kill or whatever you do those monsters as you encounter them? Isn’t the idea of a patrol redundant when everyone threatened by the monsters themselves?”, I asked, really puzzled about the requirement of patrols protecting people who are powerful enough on their own.  
It was Frost who replied, “Your statement is based on a lot of assumptions, David.”  
“Assumptions?”, I asked, puzzled by his declaration.  
Frost calmly replied, “ Yes, your question suggests that everyone who is an Untethered is on the same level playing field!”  
Now, I was really puzzled. I enquired, “ They are not? I mean, everyone is stronger, faster, better. And most also gain an ability, don’t they?”  
Now Frank took over the explanation. That camaraderie between mentor and mentee would have been wonderful to witness if they weren’t teaming up against me.  
“ David, the Dimension may be completely different than the mortal world where you and I are originally from, but in many ways, they are completely similar. The thing that defines any world is the fact that none of its inhabitants is born equal. That is the defining factor of any species. ‘Survival of the fittest’ and all that Darwin gospel, all are born from one thing. Two individuals are always different, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. And that’s where your assumption has its vital flaw. You have basically assumed that everyone is equal because everyone is an Untethered. To assume so is a cardinal sin in this world. Believe me on that! Just like the mortal world, some are weak and some are strong. You said that most gain an ability. That’s plausible in theory. In an ideal world, that would be the reality. But, we don’t live in an ideal world. Most people can never even unlock their tattoos, forget unlocking their powers. They simply lack the drive and the will to do it. Some don’t have enough meaningful experiences. Some are just fated to have limitations. That’s why, just like in the real world, it becomes essential for the strong to protect the weak.”   
I was shocked, to say the least. The novelty of everything new happening to me today had taken over the pragmatic portion of my brain. Of course, everyone wouldn’t be equal. In fact, I had even met people today who were on different scales of power altogether. Some like Frank and Frost had two slots and were truly the best the untethered kind had to offer. But I had also seen a guy in Samuel who didn’t have an ability yet and Emma was defined as ‘slotless’. It was a harsh reality that this world, at the core of it, as defined by the same issues as the mortal world. The ambitions, the motivations and the actions of the untethered might be different but the issues remained the same.  
“ I understand what you are saying. It was foolish of me to accept my own assumptions as fact.” I said, with my embarrassment evident in my voice.  
Frost, though, responded with a smile. “It’s alright!”, he said, waving my concerns off, “But anyway, that isn’t even the most important role of the patrol. The patrol is designed to protect the mortal world from the miasma monsters and any untethered with malicious intent towards the mortal world or other untethered.”  
That statement brought my thought process to a grinding halt! What he had just said horrified me beyond measure.  
“What do you mean? Miasma-monsters can’t interact with the mortal world, can they?” I asked, my fear seeping through in my voice, looking at the both of them for some reassurance or any sign to suggest that they were just having fun at my expense. Sadly, none was forthcoming.  
Frank put his hand on my shoulders and replied, his tone sombre. “David, remember what I said when we were at your house. The untethered can interact with the mortal world. The miasma-monsters are also inhabitants of the Dimension. Thus, it naturally follows that they, too, would be able to interact with the mortal world. That interaction, though, brings nothing but grief!”  
“But, why? What purpose does it serve? The people of the mortal world can’t possibly have anything the miasma-monsters or the untethered desire!”, I replied, my voice indignant. I still couldn’t comprehend the fact that the mortal world would get involved in matters that they had no business getting involved in.  
“The untethered stop the miasma-monsters from gathering miasma. The miasma-monsters also hunt the untethered because our cores are particularly rich sources of miasma. The amount of miasma they can obtain from devouring the core of an untethered is beyond what they could gather in weeks from the environment. Sometimes, the amount of miasma is so much that miasma-monsters don’t have to gather miasma for months or even years if the Untethered they have devoured is strong or old enough. But that is rarely the case as the untethered are particularly good at escaping or evading the attention of the miasma-monsters entirely. So, they turn their sights on the mortal world!”  
I jumped in with a query I had to clear, the entire situation still blowing my mind. “But the mortal world has people with ordinary cores, right? How could they quench the thirst of these miasma monsters?”  
It was Frost who proceeded to answer my question. “It is a fact when you say that people in the mortal world have ordinary cores. But they are still sources of miasma. The mortal world exists within the Dimension, not parallel to it. The miasma in these ordinary cores is like comparing a drop of water to an ocean in case of the untethered, true, but the basest instinct of a miasma-monster is hunger, like all other animals in the mortal world. When beasts get desperate, anything goes. After all, a drop is still better than nothing. And collect enough of those drops and you have a glass of water.”  
I felt sick just hearing them speak. The killing of humans just so monsters could feed on their cores was repulsive to the extreme. But this was the reality of the world I had set foot in. it would be much easier to accept this as a bitter pill to swallow and move forward to stop it, rather than wallow in my feelings.  
I asked, my mind still buzzing with the information they had just dropped on me,“ Has it ever happened? You know, people of the mortal world dying because of miasma monsters?”  
Frost replied in a grim tone. “More than we’d like to admit, I am afraid. Especially in ancient times, when the untethered were low in numbers and still novices in skill and simply outnumbered and outmatched by the miasma-monsters.”  
I asked him, genuinely curious, in a morbid sort of way, “Any cases I would know of?”  
Frost replied, his voice betraying none of his emotions, “I think the most famous case would be The Black Plague, which affected the entire world.”  
My mind reeled in shock as I understood the implications of his word. My mind still refused to believe it, “You’re kidding, right? The Black plague was caused by rats. It is too well documented by the mortals for it to be related to the Dimension or miasma monsters.”  
Frost replied, his voice still composed, “Oh, yes, the Black plague was caused by rats, just not the ones you typically see in sewers and dump yards. It was a grave moment in history, with huge losses in the mortal world as well as in the ranks of the untethered, many of whom sacrificed themselves to stop the waves of the miasma-monsters that seemed to envelop our entire planet. It was also when the idea of the patrol was born. It was a vow by the strongest of the untethered in that generation to never let a situation escalate to the proportions to which it had grown to in those times.”  
There was a long moment of silence where all three of us were lost in our thoughts. I was struggling with the implications of what Frank and Frost had just relayed to me. For the first time today, I was struck with the true dangers this world represented, not only to me but to humanity as a whole. I vowed to get as strong as possible because I had just understood the magnitude of the responsibilities the untethered carried. It was not just abilities and powers and fun, this world was steeped in danger. And I had no intention of falling prey to it.  
After what seemed like hours, I asked them one final question. “Hey guys, you said that this world had its fair share of weak people. I am puzzled as to why you are investing your time and efforts on me when I am more than likely one of the people forever destined to be stuck at the bottom of the barrel?”  
Frank and Frost exchanged a glance before Frank answered,” To be completely honest with you, David, the biggest reason is that you are my childhood friend.”  
Although that answer was a bit disheartening and a blow to my confidence, I supposed that it was fair. It’s not like that I had shown signs of being anything special.  
“But”, Frank continued, “I have a hunch that you will be special. Just a gut feeling, if you will. And remember, this world is similar to the mortal world in one more aspect. Hard work is always rewarded and you’d better remember that!”, he finished with a wide smile. I returned his smile with an honest smile of my own, appreciating his efforts to bring me out of my funk.  
Frost interrupted us by clapping his hands. “Okay, that’s enough of the grim and serious topics. Frank, let’s show David here what a patrol feels like. Although, fair warning, David, since you are with us, it will be less of a patrol and more of a hunt. Where we will be the hunters and the monsters will be the hunted!” Frost ended his final statement with a face-splitting grin. I am not all afraid to accept that his words had me tingling with anticipation of what was to come next.


	5. The Hunting

Have you ever had a situation where you are just better than everybody at something? It could be anywhere, at your work, at the basketball court or the football field or even an online game! There’s a rush you get, just destroying everybody who happens to be unfortunate enough to cross your path. You feel invincible, you almost feel immortal! Like not even death could stop you when you are on a roll.   
That was the feeling I was getting, except I, myself, wasn’t the true reason for my own exhilaration. No, it was the company I was in. I felt as if I was being flanked by two Gods who had just decided to rain down death on anyone who dared to look their way.   
Let me start from the beginning. The patrol, or the hunt, as Frost called it got off to a mellow start. We were just jumping from building to building, on the lookout for anything resembling a monster. I had to keep up with the absurd pace at which Frank and Frost jumped and sprinted. It was frankly a grind just to be able to keep them in my sight. It was while I was huffing and puffing that they finally reduced their pace, allowing me to catch up to them. As it turned out, it wasn’t really out of the goodness of their hearts.  
As soon as I caught up to them, they started taunting me for my lack of pace and stamina. It was Frank who began the ribbing, saying stuff like, “We are at half pace here, dude!” and “If the world really has to depend on the likes of you, we might as well lie down for the miasma monsters to consume us.”  
Frost’s idea of insults was much more subtle, mixed in with words of encouragement. Some of the golden stuff out of his mouth were, “You really got to manage your energy, David, or you might be a lame-duck when you finally confront a monster.” and “You may have to train outside of our activities, David. You are simply not fit enough!”  
So, now I was out of breath and out of confidence. It was while I was in this state that we finally encountered our first monster of the patrol. It was a dog but only in the sense that it barked. Although it sounded more like a roar. And the dog was the size of a horse with two heads. Both the heads looked it hadn’t eaten for days and would rip out the throat of anyone it encountered.  
Although I had an inkling of what to expect, I was still shocked by the appearance of the monster. It was but a moment before it took notice of us and charged at us with reckless abandon. I flinched and involuntarily took a step back, with my previous confrontation with the cyclops still fresh in my mind. But I needn’t have worried because before it could get anywhere near us, it was pierced by a green laser right in the connecting point of its heads and it fell to the ground, dead. Looking towards my companions, I saw that Frank had his arm extended and his index finger was smoking, signalling to me that he was the source of that laser beam.  
Turning around to look at me, Frank said, “Your fear makes for such powerful energy, David!” He finished his remark off with a short laugh which had been embarrassing to the extreme. Vowing to myself about controlling my fear better, I proceeded to follow them as we continued with the patrol.  
The night was much of the same, with us encountering monsters and Frank and Frost disposing of them with relative ease. I would have felt pity for the monsters if their reaction to observing us wasn’t going straight for our throats.  
The whole situation had me excited. Seeing them just roll over whatever opposition we faced made me anticipate the future, my future, to be precise. I could almost envision a future where I was as strong as them. A God on the battlefield. A figure to be reckoned with and feared. As these thoughts were running through my head, we had our most interesting encounter of the night.  
I was brought out of my train of thought regarding the grand future of yours truly by a head-splitting screech. The screech sounded so inhumane that it made me want to tear my ears off. Looking towards the source of the sound, I was met with the sight of a creature that could inspire awe and fear at the same time. It was a flying creature, almost like a bird, if it wasn’t as big as a plane. Before I could marvel more at the sight above me, the bird opened its beak again to release another screech, or at least that was what I had assumed. Instead, I heard Frank yell at me, almost me in a panic, “David, jump backward!” I was initially shocked to hear the panic in Frank’s voice. What could have unnerved Frank, a veteran in the matters of the Dimension? Nothing good, I decided and I jumped backward with all the strength I could muster without seeing what I was jumping into. I crashed back first into a building and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was dazed completely and felt as if I was about to pass out. Before I could gather my thoughts, I saw Frost just pull me towards him and jump to the top of another building. I looked back to see what he was so concerned about and the sight made a shiver run down my spine. The position I had just been rescued from, because it was a rescue, alright, was now covered in ethereal flames. The flames were as black as the night in a moonless sky and the entire scene really made me appreciate how close I had come to death.  
I asked Frank in a daze, still unable to believe the sight before my eyes, “ Is that a dragon or something?”, referring to the bird-like monster which had just spouted the fire and was now perched on the top of another building gazing down on us, probably pondering on the best way to kill us.  
Frank casually replied, as if he hadn’t seen his best friend almost die, “No, nothing so grand. Actually, that’s a kite. A hell-kite. They normally never grow so big!”  
Frost voiced his agreement saying, “Yeah, that thing must be decades old to have grown that big. It requires a lot of miasma to grow that big.”  
I nodded along before asking what was really on my mind, “So, we run, right? I mean, we can’t really take on such monstrosity with just two people, right?”  
Frank bit back a laugh as he replied, “Believe me when I say this, David, that’s one of the cannon fodders of this world! Just because it has grown in size doesn’t mean that the fact it is weak is any less true!”  
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! “What do you mean its cannon fodder? I heard the panic in your voice when you told me to jump. Admit it!”  
Frank let out a snort at that, saying, “I was panicked because the hell-kite had set its sights on you and you weren’t aware of its capabilities. Even if you could have reacted its fire, you wouldn’t have been able to do much at all. That’s all.”  
The hell-kite had had enough of us ignoring it and swooped towards again with its trademark screech. The hell-kite approaching us provoked a sense of foreboding in me but this time I was determined to see the action for myself. I was hoping to learn something. Now that I had stepped into this world, a world steeped in the amazing and the dangerous at the same time, I had to prepare myself for the eventual outcome that someday, I had to fight these monsters myself. And who better to learn from than the masters of the craft themselves.  
Before the monster could take the fight to us, Frank and Frost took the initiative themselves. Rather than jumping away from the monster to evade it, as any sane person would have done, they jumped towards the monster. The hell-kite, seeing this, it decided to give them the taste of its black flames, which made me anxious, having already felt the potency of those flames.  
Rather than reacting to the attack by the hell-kite, they let the fire consume them. My anxiousness rose to extreme levels as I feared that my childhood friend and his mentor had just become monster toast. But I needn’t have worried because they emerged from the flames, protected by some sort of pink shield, Frank’s doing, I suppose.   
That was all the reason Frank and Frost needed to unleash their attacks. It was Frost who begun the proceedings. He shot out a solid beam of pure ice from behind Frank’s shield. The attack was strong and the effects could be felt even in the area I was located at, which was quite far away from the action itself. The temperature of the area I was in dropped considerably and I could feel myself shivering due to the cold. But the hell-kite was unfazed. It launched its own fire, more menacing and hotter than before. It was like seeing the collision of two forces of nature as the meeting of the two powers resulted in the whole area covered with a thick layer of fog. The entire sequence of events had left me jittery about the outcome of this confrontation.   
But then the balance of powers shifted because Frost had another person on his side, Frank. And Frank was no novice. He shot out a beam of the whitest light I had ever seen. The power of the beam could be felt far and wide as it cleared all the fog in the area it passed through, washing the environment in its resplendence brilliance. I couldn’t look at the beam directly as I feared becoming blind. Even the hell-kite sensed that going against that light would be suicide as it hastened to move out of the way of the beam with surprising agility for a creature of that size.   
But the beam was too fast for him and it struck its left wing before it could get entirely out of the beam’s way. Frost, then, emerged from the chaos and brought his fists together in some sort of attack against the bird. I didn’t realise the point of his attack as nothing happened. But then I heard a groan of despair coming from the hell-kite.   
Looking down, I could only look on in awe as the hell-kite was being rapidly encased in a tomb of ice. The monster gave a screech of defiance before it succumbed to the ice, buried in the ice forever, or so I thought.  
Frank shouted from the top of the building he was on, “ David, stay alert! A creature as old as this must have a few tricks up its sleeve. The current situation will force it to show us its trump card.”  
I was puzzled by that statement. Surely, the hell-kite couldn’t escape the grave of ice that Frost had trapped it in. I know that the hell-kite was strong and experienced but earlier in the evening I had seen a cyclops die just by falling over after being encased in a similar tomb of ice. So, personally, I was confident in the demise of the hell-kite.  
As it turns out, I shouldn’t have tempted fate because that’s when things went wrong. Oh, so very wrong. As I was looking at the bird in the ice, a blinding light began emanating from the ice. Thinking that it was an attack from Frost to finish off the monster once and for all, I looked towards where he stood, only to find him looking at the ice with an unexpectedly grim look on his face.  
I looked back at the position where the monster had fallen, only to realise that it wasn’t the ice which was radiating light, it was the hell-kite itself. Before I could realise what was going on, cracks began to form on the ice. I was alarmed to see the cracks spread throughout the grave, finally making me realise that the ice was going to break and fail in its task of holding off the hell-kite.  
With a screech that spoke of the hell-kite’s frustration, anger, and anguish at its current predicament, the hell-kite spread its wings within the ice and in a shocking show of strength, just broke through the ice. This was accompanied by massive icicles, sharp as daggers, just flying about in all directions. I saw that some even lodged in the body of the hell-kite. But more importantly to my current well-being, some were headed straight towards me. Overtaken by adrenaline or fear or the threat of death or whatever, I dodged the first two giant icicles in a display of agility I didn’t know I possessed. But my momentum which I gathered in dodging the first two, I was completely helpless to doge the third one as I saw it hurtling towards, ready to rip through me. Or it would have, had a pink shield not appeared before me and managed to deflect the icicle without a dent on it.   
I looked towards Frank to show him my thanks. But I found out that his attention was being completely occupied by our current adversary and predicament. Looking towards the hell-kite myself, I saw that it was still bathed in a yellow glow. I was puzzled as I saw had thought that it was a one-time thing enabling it to counter Frost’s ice.  
I asked Frost at the top of my voice, “Hey! What’s happening?”  
Frost looked at me for just a moment before shifting his sight back to the bird. He said, his sights still set on the hell-kite, “It has become desperate. It probably thinks that it is futile to take us head-on. So, he has finally revealed its trump card. A trump card, which all miasma-monsters have if they reach a desperate enough state.”  
I was puzzled, wondering if this was some sort of berserker state that I had seen in games and movies for some characters and I voiced my question towards Frank. His reply shook me to my core.   
He said, “No, David, this is not a berserker state. This is actually much worse. This is actually its evolved state.”  
This did not serve to quell my confusion. It only further fuelled them. But before I could interrupt, Frank continued. “When a miasma-monster becomes desperate enough and thinks its knocking on death’s door, something awakens in its core. They evolve. They become stronger, faster, better. Things seem to be move slowly for them. But that wouldn’t be much of a concern to us if that’s all it could do. We could still take care of it. No, our biggest concern right now is that in the evolved state, the hell-kite can interact with the mortal world.”  
I pondered on his words for a moment before the weight of his words impacted me like an avalanche. All the horror tales I had listened to about monsters interacting with the mortal world. The example of the black plague. Nothing good came out of such situations.  
Frank looked at my expression of horror and nodded, “Yes, now you realise the severity of the problem. The mortals are in danger here. The buildings, the people living in it, the entire city is in danger here. This will force us to become defensive and focus on minimising the collateral damage, while we wait for some sort of enforcement, which could take some time depending on how soon people realise that there’s an evolved in town.”  
I was appalled at the severity of the situation. A monster which I had to be a mindless beast driven by nothing but instinct had forced us into a corner. It had, in one fell swoop, made the entire city its playground and made the people in it a liability. It had essentially taken the city hostage.  
The hell-kite didn’t wait for any more of our conversation amongst ourselves and dove straight towards the building Frank was on. Instead of attacking, Frank erected a shield enveloping the whole building and the hell-kite crashed into it. It was dazed for a moment but the shield was broken. Frank quickly reinforced his shield. The creation of such large shields was taking a toll on Frank as he was struggling for breath now.   
That was when my eyes fell on the icicle that had deflected off Frank’s shield which he had used to protect. And the craziest, most foolhardy plan formulated itself in my mind. I picked up the icicle, careful not to cut myself on its sharp edges. I ran straight towards the edge of the building I was standing on, in the direction of where the hell-kite was. Gathering all of my strength, I jumped, making sure to time it with the hell-kite striking Frank’s shield for a second time.  
The hell-kite struck the shield and was again dazed for a few moments. As it turns out, I had timed my jump perfectly. I raised the icicle over my head in mid-air and just as I was about to land on the hell-kite’s back, I brought it down with all the force I could muster. The icicle pierced through the body of the monster and it started hurtling towards the ground, with me still on its back, as gravity took over. I was banking on the fact that it was already exhausted and all the icicles already lodged in its body had it already close to its demise. I just wanted to strike the final blow, the final nail on the coffin, if you will. I heard the faint cries of alarm from my companions but I was too hurt to care. In my daze, I noticed that the monster had stopped glowing and was leaking miasma into the air at a rapid rate, meaning that the icicle had done its job.  
We hit the ground with a deafening crash, my fall cushioned by the hell-kite, though it wasn’t long before I kissed the ground as the monster had completely evaporated into miasma. I was shaken and dazed as I tried to get up but ended up falling onto my knees. I heard fast footsteps coming towards me before abruptly stopping. I looked up, expecting to see looks of admiration and awe on the faces of Frank and Frost. Instead, their faces were washed over with shock as they were looking at my chest rather than my face.   
Feeling self-conscious, I looked towards my chest, wondering to myself if I had been pierced too. But to my utter shock and surprise, my chest was glowing right where my heart is supposed to be. I was confused by the implications of my chest glowing before realisation hit me.  
I had just unlocked my tattoo, on my first night as an untethered. I was no longer ‘slotless’.


	6. Samuel and Training

I had finally had enough! Laying on the bed, just staring at the ceiling is not at all fun. One of the so-called “perks”, although I wouldn’t dare call it that, of being an Untethered? I didn’t need to sleep! Or at least, that’s how Frank stated it to me. At the time of hearing it, I was pumped! More time on my hands! Brilliant! What I didn’t know at the time was that my so-called friend was lying. Lying by omission, you know! It’s not that I didn’t need sleep, it’s more like I can’t bloody sleep! One of the utmost joys of my life, gone, poof, just like that.  
I got up from my bed and switched on the lights. I got in front of the mirror and took off my shirt. No, not to look at my newly gained muscles, although those were nice, I got to admit! No, the thing I wanted to see, wanted to admire, wanted to lovingly gaze at was my tattoo! Conclusive proof that yesterday hadn’t been a dream. Undeniable evidence that I had been elevated from the ranks of the countless ‘slotless’ on my first day as an Untethered. “ Must be once in a generation event!” Frank had remarked, feigned jealousy in his tone. It was my ticket to strength, an escape from my monotonous, ordinary life and so much more, all at once!  
But most importantly of all, it was a display of the fact that I was the first inhabitant of the Dimension on this planet that Frost had seen having a tattoo indicating three slots. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, yours truly is one among a billion, as rare as a meteor crash on earth. In all seriousness, my tattoo had shaken the hell out of Frank and Frost. The magnitude of this event could be felt just by looking at the expressions on both of their faces. Frank’s face was one of pure shock and surprise, while Frost had an alarmed look on his face which quickly morphed into a contemplative gaze. We had gone our own separate ways after the reveal of my tattoo, each of us having our personal thoughts to mull and ponder upon. Frost had made me promise that I would come to the club as soon as possible in the morning, as he had some things to prepare for me.  
The first thing I had done after coming home was to study my tattoo extensively. Not to sound smug or arrogant, but it was a work of art, if I may say so myself!  
It was an image of an ornate pocket watch which had one of its dials pointed at three, the indicator of the number of slots I possessed. The second was pointed at zero, the number of abilities I had currently unlock. Or at least, that was what Frost speculated. But it did not end there. What made the tattoo really special was the beautiful serpent coiled around it, its head rising from just over the top of the watch. The serpent itself was one of the most unusual and awe-inspiring I had ever seen. It certainly would never be found in the mortal world. I wasn’t even sure of its existence in the dimension. The serpent was really striking, its scales like amethyst. I was sure that if such a creature did exist in the Dimension, it would be even more beautiful in reality! What really separated it from the snakes found in the mortal world was the two wings sprouting from its back, giving the impression that it was a really thin dragon!  
Looking at the tattoo, I couldn’t help but think back at the events of last night, after my tattoo was revealed. I had quickly taken off my shirt, much to the amusement of Frank, to see what my tattoo represented. To say that all of us were shocked would be an understatement. Frank was hyperventilating when he realised that I had three slots, while Frost just stared at me and my tattoo in quick succession before muttering, “This changes everything! Finally!” he was not too responsive when we asked him what he meant by that statement.  
My narcissistic self-admiration was broken by the sound of my phone ringing. Looking at the caller-id, I saw that it was Frank. Picking up the phone I just told him that I would be at the club in fifteen minutes. Putting the phone down, I put on a fresh shirt with a sigh, reminding myself to ask Frank about his clothes changing trick. Picking up my phone, I went towards the window of my room and jumped off its ledge with a nonchalance that the me of yesterday would have great trouble believing.  
I reached the club and almost immediately was greeted with the stares of the various people already present there. Something told me that someone had leaked the fact that I had gotten my tattoo and the number of slots I had to these people. I looked around to find where Frank was, certain that I was behind this fiasco. I eventually found him in one corner of the club, sitting with his girlfriend, Lucy and Samuel. I quickly made my way towards them, intent on giving Frank a piece of my mind. As soon as I made it to their corner, I was met with a sheepish look from Frank, proving my theory regarding his culpability right. But before I could go in on him, Lucy intervened, saying, “David, Frank only told me. It was me who told everyone else.”  
I was surprised by this admission, wondering if she was telling the truth or just saving Frank’s hide.  
“What, why would you do that? I made it clear to Frank that I didn’t want this information getting out!”, I replied, adamant that it was my choice regarding who to tell and when to divulge this information.  
I was surprised when Lucy took on a stern expression. She said, “Well, it’s not your choice to make. Everyone deserved to know this information!”  
I was flabbergasted and I made it clear to her, “How? How does anyone else have the right to this information?”  
Lucy was quick to reply, “Because you represent something bigger than yourself! Do you have any idea how many untethered live in fear that any day might be their last day? People need to know that there is hope, a hope of a better, safer, more peaceful future!”  
Frank quickly intervened, so that the situation didn’t escalate further, because now people were staring at us in curiosity, although most of the gazes still held awe and wonder in them as they looked at me! It was very disconcerting.  
“David, do you know how many three-slotters we know or have even heard of? None! Until now, that is. Lucy is right. Like it or not, you have become a bastion of hope! People will look to you to reach your potential and become their leader. People need to know that, in the near future, they will have someone to look upto, someone who can they rely on to usher in a new age. Believe me, people deserve to know when a three-slotter comes around. People need to know when a three-slotter comes around!”  
I was still digesting whatever the couple had said to me when Frost came around to our corner! He just waved to me and began speaking, as if he hadn’t just seen the little spectacle we had going on, “Hey, David. Good to see you join us so early in the morning. I see that you have already caught up with your friends. I wanted you here so that I could introduce you to Samuel. He is going to take over your training from today onwards.”  
I shot an incredulous look towards Frost and asked, “What training?”  
Frost said, “Well, you need training obviously, especially now that you have unlocked your tattoo! You did a great job against the hell-kite, true, but it was a lucky shot! You need to train so that you can get stronger and it might also help you to unlock an ability, who knows? You will also be joining Samuel on his patrols, seeing as he needs a partner anyways. He will be showing you the ins and outs of the patrol. Basically, he will be your mentor and guide for the time being!”  
Before I could get a word out, Samuel spoke up, in a rumbling voice which was still intimidating, “Let’s get going, kid. Just don’t expect any preferential treatment because you happen to have a nice tattoo, you understand?”  
I could only mutely nod, not trusting myself to speak and followed him out of the club, but not before mouthing off towards Frank, intent on letting him know exactly how I felt about this situation. He just responded to my words with a smile, infuriating me even more.  
On our way out, we ran into the beautiful girl from yesterday, Emma. She was looking at me with a contemplative gaze, as I was a particularly difficult puzzle that she just couldn’t wait to solve. Then I remembered that she was still slotless and wondered if she would treat me some sort of ill-veiled contempt. Contrary to my expectations though, all she did was nod in my direction and silently mouth, “Good luck”, her face still one of silent contemplation.  
Before I could further ponder on her actions, Samuel asked me about the encounter with the hell-kite last night. He nodded along as I told him everything in excruciating detail, particularly proud of what I considered the crowning achievement of my young life.  
After we walked some more in silence, me wondering I had said something wrong, Samuel finally opened his mouth, telling me in a dry tone, “Don’t let your head get too inflated. Your skills need much work, as do your storytelling skills. I was close to kicking you in the crotch if you had continued to expound your greatness much longer.”  
That was certainly not the response I was expecting. My expectations were more along the line of compliments and encouragement, certainly not a critic of my skills as a fighter and a muse.  
I could only continue walking along with him, until we finally came to a restaurant, “Samuel’s”. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. This was ‘the’ Samuel, the owner of the most exclusive restaurant in town. I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but damn!  
We entered the building through the back door and went up a flight of stairs, where we came upon a massive gym, with no occupants in it. To say the place was the top of the line would be an understatement. A boxing ring, a taekwondo ring, machines, bars, weights, you name it, he had it. I was busy admiring the facility when I felt a top of my shoulder. Turning around, I was met with a punch on my jaw that sent me flying. I was seeing stars for a few seconds before I looked up to see that Samuel was staring at me, no emotion in his cold eyes.  
“We need to work on your skills. Strength will be taken care of by fighting monsters during patrols. What we need to concentrate on is your reaction, instincts, speed and most importantly, your defence and evasion techniques. We need to make up for your lack of experience with an abundance of skills!”  
He still hadn’t explained why he had clocked me in the face though. When I indignantly asked him to explain himself, he replied with a menacing voice, probably to intimidate me, in which he admittedly succeeded.  
“I have two rules and you will follow them if you want to learn from me. Rule one, never talk back to me. And rule two, the minute you step into this room, it’s training time. You better keep your guard up whenever you are here!”  
Immediately after that, he jumped towards me with the sole intention of punching me in the face again. I quickly jumped out of his way, trying to avoid his strike. But much to my amazement, he changed direction in mid-air with the agility of a leopard and kicked me in my ribs. That served to make me fly again and crash into the boxing ring. My whole body racked with pain. Before I could gather my bearings, Samuel was on top of me again and kicked me on my sides this time, sending me flying again.  
This continued for what seemed like hours, with me rolling and ducking and jumping out of Samuel’s way to save my life, while Samuel kicked and punched me with what seemed like his full strength. When Samuel decided that I had had enough torture for one day, he finally stopped, saying, “That’s enough for one day. Let’s move on to other things.”  
I so desperately wanted to flip him off, but my fear for the repercussions outweighed my desire to give Samuel the finger. Instead, I could only muster the strength to ask, still prone on the ground, “What other things? I can barely move!”   
Samuel, though, couldn’t care less. All he said was, “No enemy is going to wait for you to not hurt or not be tired to attack you. Get up, you are going to try and hit me now!”  
This I could get behind, although I was still wary of why Samuel would use the word ‘try’. I got my answer soon enough when I, with the strength of my bruised and aching body, tried to throw a feeble punch at him. All I got in response was him dodging and then punching me in my midsection. That had me doubling over in renewed pain, all the while cursing the gods and Frank and Frost for partnering me up with this unfeeling, sadistic freak.  
My punishment continued for a few more minutes, or hours, or days, I didn’t know and frankly I couldn’t care less. I tried hitting Samuel with punches and kicks, the keyword here being ‘tried’, only for Samuel to evade and hit me right back. “No enemy is going to let you hit him without striking back”, he said. “Fuck you!”, I retorted back. Only in my head though.  
After I had been sapped of all my strength, Samuel said, “Get up. I recognised your key problem. You are hitting without any thought, just wildly swinging. We need to work on your form.”  
The next hour, we only worked on my form. He showed me how to control my punches and the angle of my arms and legs while hitting somebody. All the while, my body was screaming at me to just lay down and not follow any more of this moron’s words.  
After finishing off with the training, I received no encouragement or compliments. All he said was, “Go and rest in your home. Come back here in two hours. We will go out on a patrol. What you experienced yesterday was a rarity, not what usually occurs. You need experience fighting our mortal enemies without the use of your ability, if and when you unlock them.”  
Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence!  
But he continued on, “ I have seen too many waste their martial potential just because they have unlocked their cool ability, which is supposedly better than any ability anyone has ever possessed. Idiots, the lots of them! I won’t have you making the same mistakes! Do you understand me, kid?”  
I could only nod as I didn’t have any intention of disagreeing with him, my body still proof of the punishment I had endured by his hands. I quickly rushed home after that, eager for some rest before going out again, but not before cursing my fate one last time for sticking me with Samuel, of all people.


End file.
